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Mulls Total Ban on Bitcoin Trading: Korea’s Justice Ministry

The South Korean Ministry of Justice is going to prohibit the trading of all cryptocurrencies including bitcoin.

Nikkei published a report citing an official from Korea’s Ministry of Justice that the ministry official suggesting a complete ban on all cryptocurrency trading in Korea which is now firmly established as one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading markets. This move will have to face oppositions from other legislators including Korea’s finance ministry, which is made to protect retail investors from potential scams, according to the official.

In clear statements on Monday, the report cites Choi Jin-Seok who is a prosecutor at the Justice Ministry in charge of cryptocurrency-related crimes, has stated that:

“We do not rule out an option that bans trading of [all] cryptocurrencies. We acknowledge many problems stemming from the trade and are studying how to control them.”

If the ban is enforced it will take afterChina’s precedent in carrying out crippling measures to effectively shutter its local bitcoin industry. Korea has already followed China’s method of enforcing a complete prohibition on initial coin offering (ICO) fundraising.

The Justice Ministry’s plan “will almost certainly face opposition inside the government”, the report further added. It is the tremendously popular cryptocurrency industry.

Korea’s National Tax Service which is operating under the purview of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance is drawing a framework to enforce income taxes on cryptocurrencies. In the month of July Park Yong-jin, a lawmaker and member of the ruling Democratic Party set out to draft multiple revisions to existing legislation to make a regulation for the cryptocurrencies which is an effort that shaping in the country.

The regulation of the bitcoin industry began with the promise of the chief of Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) the country’s primary financial regulator in last year.

The promise was:

“The government will push for the systemization of digital currency on a full scale in tandem with a global trend in the U.S., Japan and other countries.:”

Nikkei report that cites sources within Korea’s Justice Ministry is saying that “many prosecutors are leaning towards considering cryptocurrencies themselves a scam”. They aren’t backed by a monetary authority or a government. And this classification will help the Justice Ministry the legal go-ahead to apply Korea’s criminal code and effectively prohibit the cryptocurrency trading.